Some GOP senators may break ranks to back a bill for same-sex marriage in New York

ALBANY - On the heels of the Vermont legislature's legalization of gay marriage last week, Gov. David Paterson will introduce legislation on Thursday that will allow same-sex couples to marry in New York.

The governor's proposed legislation will be identical to the program bill introduced by former Gov.

Eliot Spitzer
in 2007, according to Assembly sponsor
Daniel O'Donnell
, D-Manhattan. The Assembly passed the bill that year by 24 votes, 85 to 61, but the legislation stalled in the then Republican-controlled Senate, where Majority Leader
Joseph L. Bruno
would not allow the bill to come to the floor.

Democrats
now control the chamber, and Senate Majority Leader
Malcolm Smith
is personally supportive of legalizing gay marriage. But the issue remains unresolved because of the party's thin 32-to-30 majority. Smith has said that he would bring the bill to the floor only when there are enough votes to ensure passage. A Senate Democratic source says the number of Democrats in support of the bill is in the "high 20s."

Sen.
Tom Duane
, D-Manhattan, who will sponsor the bill in the Senate, said he is confident that a bill to legalize same-sex marriage will pass this year, and that it will pass with bipartisan support.

"I always knew that this would happen with bipartisan support," Duane said Tuesday. " ... We are not going to do this just with a majority, but a majority with extra votes."

Duane said he has commitments of support from Republican senators, but wouldn't name them.

The senator added that he believed the unnamed

Senate Republicans
would follow through on their commitment to him, based on Republicans' history of passing bills such as the hate crimes bill of 2000 and the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act, which passed in 2002.

"I really look at the history with what happened with hate crimes and what happened with SONDA. Republicans said they would vote for the bills, and Republicans did vote for those bills," Duane said.

Smith spokesman
Austin Shafran
confirmed that the commitment holds regardless of whether the votes are Democratic or Republican, but it isn't clear how the Senate Republicans will move.

"The conference has been opposed, and continues to be opposed to this bill," said
Scott Reif
, a Senate GOP spokesman.

Advocates will need Senate Republican support if they hope to pass the bill this year. At least four Democratic senators do not support the legalization of gay marriage: Downstate legislator

Diaz, an outspoken opponent of gay marriage who withheld his support of Smith as Senate majority leader over the issue, said Paterson is hurting Senate Democrats in the 2010 elections by pushing for legalization now.

"I doubt that the Republicans are going to join the Democrats to pass this now. They are dying for the upstate Democratic senators ... to come out in favor of this," Diaz said.

Diaz said that if the governor wants to help the cause, "the best way he could do it is by stepping aside and let
Andrew Cuomo
be the candidate for governor. Andrew Cuomo will definitely bring more senators and will win more Democratic seats. And my vote will no longer be needed."

"I believe we should look at a civil union law for the purpose of benefits for couples as opposed to same-sex marriage," Valesky said.

Speaking briefly on the issue Tuesday, Paterson said a civil unions law would not sufficient. "Those individuals, gay or lesbian, would live in a civil union (but) are still not entitled to somewhere between 1,250 and 1,350 benefits," Paterson said.

Courts in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa ruled same-sex couples have the right to marry; Vermont is the first state to legalize gay marriage through legislation. The
California Supreme Court
permitted gay marriage, but Proposition 8 threw it out; the matter is headed back to the courts.